Russian Indictments
By
Leonard Zwelling
Robert Mueller has filed indictments against 13 individuals and three organizations for meddling in the elections of the United States of America. All are Russian.
It is now virtually impossible for the current President of the United States to deny such interference and he better start worrying about what else Mr. Mueller has found or will find with regard to collusion between said Russians and members of the Trump team and the accusations of obstruction of justice that have fallen on the White House.
Here’s the whole indictment:
https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download
There is certainly now a gun. Whether or not it is smoking is really up to your point of view. It looks like it to me. Not to Mr. Trump.
For the Russians to have launched their trolls and bots at our elections and to have witting or unwitting American citizens assist them by promulgating their internet nonsense on Facebook and Twitter, even leading to pro-Trump demonstrations, is, to my mind, an act of war.
Anything short of expulsion of all Russian diplomats from the country is too small a response. All trade with Russia should cease. All loans to Russia should be called. All dealings with Russia should end OR, we should wreck havoc with their social media and internet systems. If they want war in cyberspace, the considerable abilities of the U.S. government that were on display Friday in unearthing this intrusion should be turned on the Russians and while we are at it, on the Chinese and North Koreans as well. Let’s shut down Facebook and Twitter in Russia as a fast start.
The Obama Administration deserves a goodly amount of the blame for most of this happened on their watch. But Trump is the commander-in-chief now. It’s up to him to respond to these acts of war on America.
This should not go unanswered.
And, as Ryan Goodman says in The New York Times on February 17, the Mueller investigation must go forward unimpeded by forces outside and within the Trump White House. This is serious stuff. The country is at war with another foreign entity. This is no less than was Pearl Harbor or 9/11. Wake up!
And as for Trump and the rest of those in the White House, they should be completely vetted (especially the ones that failed to get security clearances). If Jared Kushner colluded with the Russians and broke any laws he needs to be prosecuted no matter who is father-in-law is.
A foreign power tried to undermine American democracy. If that’s not an act of war, I don’t know what is. It should be dealt with accordingly regardless of how much money Mr. Trump may owe Russian banks.
